The creation of a new British Airways short-haul airline at Gatwick has taken a step closer to take off with a deal over pay and conditions for cabin crew.
BA finalised negotiations last week with the Unite union, which represents more than 10,000 of the carrier’s cabin crew, engineers and ground staff.
Final talks with ground handling staff are now expected to be concluded swiftly after BA reached agreement with pilots’ union Balpa last month.
According to an update to staff seen by the Mail on Sunday, BA chief executive Sean Doyle said: “Our plans for a new BA-branded subsidiary to fly short-haul at Gatwick are progessing well, having received support this week from Unite.
“While we still have some further negotiations to sort out, it looks likely that we will be up and running to fly the summer schedule.”
Unite aviation officer Oliver Richardson told the newspaper: “We wouldn’t want a position at Gatwick where people are being asked to come back to a short-haul operation on radically inferior terms and conditions.”
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